{"id":51669,"date":"2022-09-12T09:30:36","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T07:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazin.tu-braunschweig.de\/?post_type=kb_magazin&p=51669"},"modified":"2022-09-13T10:48:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T08:48:02","slug":"tu-braunschweig-involved-in-nasa-mission-to-the-jupiter-system","status":"publish","type":"kb_magazin","link":"https:\/\/magazin.tu-braunschweig.de\/en\/m-post\/tu-braunschweig-involved-in-nasa-mission-to-the-jupiter-system\/","title":{"rendered":"TU Braunschweig involved in NASA mission to the Jupiter system"},"content":{"rendered":"

The time has come again: In an international tender, the MAGNETSRODE calibration laboratory was selected by NASA to calibrate its magnetometers on the “Europa Clipper” mission. The worldwide unique laboratory was awarded the contract in competition with eight other facilities. The laboratory is operated by the Institute of Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Haje Korth and Dr. Ingo Richter in front of the Braunbek coil system in Magnetsrode under pseudo-clean room conditions. In the centre you can see a diagonally positioned Europa Clipper magnetometer sensor in the setup for frequency measurements at room temperature. Photo credit: Ingo Richter\/TU Braunschweig<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201eEuropa Clipper\u201c<\/a> is the name of NASA’s current flagship mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The launch of the mission is planned for autumn 2024. The mission duration will be about eleven years. On its way to the moon Europa, the spacecraft will first gain momentum in flybys of Mars and Earth. After about six years of flight through interplanetary space, the spacecraft will be launched into an orbit around JUPITER.\u00a0Further flybys of Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Callisto will slow the probe down to such an extent that it will have an orbit that is ideally suited for exploring Europa. Among many other instruments designed to explore whether life is possible on Jupiter’s moon, “Europa Clipper” is equipped with three magnetometers. The magnetometers will help to explore the electromagnetic processes inside the moon.<\/p>\n

Before the magnetometers can be used seriously, they must be extensively tested and calibrated. This is where the IGEP of TU Braunschweig comes into play with its MAGNETSRODE<\/a> calibration laboratory. It was built in the 1960s on a remote part of the former Federal Agricultural Research Centre in an electromagnetically quiet environment. Since then, magnetometers have been successfully calibrated for 30 space missions of many international space agencies.<\/p>\n

“Precise magnetic fields of the required accuracy (\u00b1100000 nanotesla in all three spatial directions at \u00b10.8 nanotesla absolute accuracy) can certainly be provided by other facilities, but our facility can also comprehensively test the magnetometers in the computer-controlled temperature range from -196\u00b0C to +200\u00b0C, which is unique in the world,” says Dr. Ingo Richter, head of the magnet lab.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, frequency responses in the millihertz to kilohertz range could also be measured. “In short, we provide the sensitivities, skew angles, offsets and frequency responses of the magnetometers under test into a wide temperature range for complete characterisation of the instrument properties.”<\/p>\n